Eric Hetland

Pronunciation: AIR-ik HET-land

Eric’s research spans from the dynamics of geophysical natural hazards to applications of inference and estimation to a variety of problems. The major emphasis of my work is understanding earthquake activity, primarily from a geodetic perspective. This work includes the process in which faults are loaded, during both the long interseismic period leading-up to an earthquake and the immediate postseismic period, and the conditions at which faults slip. Eric is collaborating with Prof. Becky Lange to model the conditions that prime the crust for effusive volcanic eruptions. Eric also has projects applying machine learning methods to geodetic data, in addition to problems ranging from climate studies to vulnerability to the full spectrum of hazards.  Applied mathematics, computation science, and data-driven analysis are fundamental to all of our work.